From The Tiger & Rose October 1923
SERGEANTS MESS
 We are drawing to the end of yet another training season, the Prize Shoot is over, and we have cleared up for the Annual Camps. We have again, therefore, set our entertainment committee at work. They, with their usual skill, have drawn up an excellent programme, and I can see some busy times between now and next April with dances, whist drives and concerts.
 There is also talk of boxing competitions and cross -country runs. Of course, we shall have to play our old friends from Endcliffe at football, just to show them how it should be done, and we might be able to fix a date with the Garrison team. We have had a glorious year. An excellent camp and a good prize meeting. The list of prize winners is coming along for this issue of The Tiger and Rose so it will not be necessary for me to pass any remarks about the shooting of the Sergeants. I and several others went down fully intending to come away as this year's "Fox Cup" winner, but R.SM Spink shattered all our hopes and carried off the cup for the third tune in succession. The only member of the Mess who was ever in the running was C-S-M. Lumb, who led by a point on the first practice, but cracked up afterwards, leaving the Sergt. Major an easy winner. I had a fairly good opinion of the Barnsley Sergeants and thought they could shoot, but after this exhibition I think they are equally as bad as we are. I would also like to say something about the Wath Boys, but as we visit them for the Annual Dinner in a few weeks' time it is best to be careful. Below will be found a few replies to queries which have cropped up since camp.
Prize Shoot.
"A" contest.
Signals.
£1 and Silver Medal: Corpl. Connell, Ptes. Bevington, Richardson, Walker.
"C" Company.
10s. and Bronze Medal: L.-Corpl. Manders, Ptes. Exelby, Asquith.
Drums.
5/- each: Drs. Pratt, Payne, Wolsley, Pike. ,
Harrison Memorial Vase.
Captain J. W. Beaumont, M.C., " H.Q." Company.
Stanhope Cup.
Major J. G. E. Rideal, D.S.O., "C" Company.
Feoffees Cup.
Captain J. W. Beaumont, M.C.. " H.Q." Company.
Wentworth Cup.
No. 9 Platoon, " C " Company.
" B " contest.
" C " Company.
£,1 and Silver Medal : Corpl. Armitage-L.-Corpls. Mc'Phail, Moxon, Ptes. Evans, Carr, Darren, Smith, Adiington, Armstrong, Russell.
Drums.
10/- and Bronze Medal : Sergt.-Dr. Vizard, Corpl. Large, L.-Corpls. Wolsley, Elliss, Drs. Crapper, Driver, Pratt, Payne, Pike, Smithies.
" D " Company.
5/- each : Sergt. Dabbs, L.-Cpl. Stanley. Ptes. Bates, Walker, Booth, Dunning, L.-Cpl. Milnes, Ptes. Hawley, Hickman.
" C " contest (Individual). Trained Men.
1. L.-Corpl. Atkinson ; 2, R.S M Spink,, 3, Sergtt. Wright ; 4, Corpl: Walker ;5, Pte. Hunt ; 6, C.S.M. Lumb ; 7, Pte Asquith ; 8, Sergt. Trees ; 9, Pte. Bevington 10, L.-Corpl. Parker ; n, Pte. Walker 12, Sergt. Murray ; 13, Pte. Mc'Cudden 14, L.-Sergt. Pacey ; 15, C.S.M. Silvester, l6, Pte. Birch ; 17, Pte. Evans ; 18, L.-Corpl Shaw; 19, Sergt. Shaw ; 20, L.-Corpl. Manders.
Recruits.
1, Dr. Payne ; 2, Pte. Inett ; 3, Dr-Pratt ; 4, Pte. Cartledge ; 5, Pte. Dewhirst ;
6, Pte. Woods; 7, Pte. Pratt ; 8, Pte. Taylor ; 9, Pte. Harwood ; 10, Pte. Darren ;
n, Pte. Stubbings ; 12, Pte. Russell ; 13, Pte. Midwood.
Winners of Scarborough Cup, " A" Company, Captain J. M. Fisher, D.S.O., M.C.
Winner of Fox Cup, R.S.M. Spink.
Winner of Sloddart Trophv, 2nd-Lieul. C. R. Hodgson

The Fox Cup
Inscription Reads:
“The Fox Cup 1923 Won by RegT SergT Major R Spink”

The Fox Cup was awarded for shooting. At the beginning of the First World War the Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment was Lt Col C Fox. He may have been the man who provided the trophy.
(source D W Scott - Rotherham Library and Information Services)

1960
He's worked even harder for ex-Service men than he did as Army recruiter
BY JOHN NORTH

MR. Spink is so unassuming that it is a surprise to remember he was for nine years a regimental sergeant-major. Among the 1,000 members of Darlington Branch at the British Legion, he is well respected for the service he has given them.
He became secretary of the branch and of the club just after the war, having already served a few years as club treasurer He is in his office at the club in Raby Terrace each morning and back again each evening, looking after the Legion's day-to-day business. He retired ten years ago. when he was 63, as Army recruiting sergeant in Darlington, and he says that in his retirement he has been working harder than he used to work before.
During his secretary ship, the club building has been extended- He represents the Legion on local employment disablement and war pensions committees. For several years he was Darlington's Poppy Day organiser, and he still helps each year.
LEGION DISTINCTIONS
He holds a national certificate for his work as Poppy Day organiser. At the Legion conference at Margate this Whitsun be received another national certificate for his services on behalf of ex-service men and their dependants. He holds also the Gold Badge, the Legion's highest honour.
He likes working among the Darlington Legion members. They may grouse it he asks them to do anything. But grousing, he says, is their privilege for having been in the Services. He knows they will be getting on with the job.
He has himself been a Legion member 30 year's. In the 1914-18 war, one of his brothers was shot through an arm, the bullet lodging too close to his heart for an operation to be possible. After the war, he was able to work only a month or so at a time before being taken ill. After some years he died, and a doctor gave the cause of death as tuberculosis.
Mr. Spink advised an approach to the Legion; for the doctor’s decision, if upheld meant that his brother’s widow would receive no war pension. The Legion fought the case to establish the cause of his brother's dh. Eventually the Legion won and the widow received her pension. Being a Regular in the Army, Mr. Spink could not then join the Legion; but he joined as soon as his engagement ended.
As a boy, Mr. Spink who comes from Leeds always wanted to join the Army. An uncle to whom he was much attached was in the militia, and he used to go to the station to carry his uncle's kit. His uncle always brought him a cane.
MARBLE STOPPERS
Mr. Spink's first job on leaving school at 13, however, mostly washing bottles, but occasionally operating an old bottling machine which filled one bottle at a time. As many will recall, the stoppers in mineral water bottles in those days were marbles.  They were pressed through a ring in the bottle mouth and held in ate there by the gas inside.
There was no charge on the bottles; and bicycle tyres were frequently cut by broken glass from bottles thrown away in the street.
Mr. Spink still wanted to be in the Army: and in 1902 during the Boer War, he joined the West Yorkshire Militia at York. He was only 15½ ; but giving a false age was not then a punishable offence, In the November he joined the King's Royal Rifles at Gosport; after three months. However, his mother claimed him out.
In 1903 he was back again, training with the Green Howard's Militia at Richmond and Strensall. He has on his middle finger a small tattoo done at Strensall by a Japanese.
In 1903 also he joined the York and Lancaster Regiment. in which he served 26 years.
THE 'KING'S SHILLING'
Pay at the time was 8½d. a day (which with ½ d for washing and 3d. for food made up the " King's shilling" handed to volunteers on enlistment). A soldier's best uniform was still red, his working clothes blue.  Every soldier had a moustache. Soldiers were not allowed to shave their upper lips until the 1914-18 war.
Mr. Spink had a happy time In the Army before that war. In 1907 then a corporal, he got mied at York. He and Mrs. Spink celebrated their golden wedding three years ago; they have eight children.
For a few years Mr. Spink was an instructor at the Signals School at Strensall. His pupils included the late Sir Henry Havelock-Allan.
Signalling was by lamp, heliograph and flag, and the York and Lancasters were still using them at the battle of Mons. Soon, however, telephone sets ("always going wrong") made their appearance; Mr. Spink. as signals sergeant, and his colleagues had to run out telephone cable to the front lines and bury It, sometimes only 40 or 50 yards from the Germans.
At the start of the war, the battalion had been at Limerick, and when they left there they had to leave their wives behind.  Soon after people of Limerick burned the barracks  but  the  wives' escaped and made their Way safely to England,
Mr. Spink was at the first battle at Ypres, the great struggle for the Channel ports. At Armentieres, before it was heavily damaged, a Scotsman asked him to attend his wedding. The Scotsman did not know a word of French; his French bride did not know a word of English. It was quite a ceremony.
Mr. Spink became a warrant officer and was mentioned in dispatches twice. In 1917 he was taken ill with a stomach complaint and brought to hospital at York, in the dining hall at Rowntree's. When a Legion meeting was held there this year, he pointed out that he had been in hospital in that very room 43 years before.
He remained in the York and Lancaster Regiment many years after the war. When the time came to leave, he got in touch with an officer at York and through him learned that a recruiter's job was going at Darlington.
BY BUS AT FIRST
Because the job meant he could stay in uniform Mr. Spink loved it He covered an area bounded by Northallerton, Leyburn, Masham, Hawes, Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland and he used to call at the various post offices or labour exchanges to meet volunteers. Until 1938, when he got a car, he used to travel the area by bus- He enlisted many men who are now members of the Legion.
When the last war broke out, he opened up a church hall in Leadenhall Street, Darlington, as a recruiting centre. After the war he helped in taking over the present recruiting office in Crown Street.
Mrs. Spink worked during the war at the WVS canteen at Bank Top Station and also at the YMCA. She is a keen supporter of the Legion. She also goes several times a week to help Darlington's blind people at their club in Corporation Road.

Links: The Long, Long Trail - WWI History Site

1957
GOLDEN WEDDING OF AN OLD SOLDIER
Mr. and Mrs. R. Spink to Celebrate Next Week

A well-known figure in Darlington ex-Service circles, Mr., Robert Spink (70), of 23 Outram Street, Darlington, will, with his wife, Mrs. Eva Edith Spink, celebrate their golden wedding on Tuesday. Mr Spink has been secretary of Darlington. British Legion Club and branch for ten years and was treasurer of the Club for seven years be-fore being appointed secretary.
A native of Leeds, Mr. Spink left school at 12 and worked at a mineral water manufacturers until he was 15. His heart, however was set on getting into the
Army and one day he decided to take the King's shilling. To get into the Army he gave his age as 18, although he was actually only 16. On his Army records, he is still two years older than his 70 years.
He served for 26 years without a break in the York and Lancaster Regiment seeing service in the 1914-18 war in France and Belgium, and he was twice mentioned in dispatches for his courage at the battle of Hooge in 191.3 and at Ypres in 1916. During those years he rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major.
Subsequently, he left the fighting ranks to become a recruiter at Darlington for 21 years. When he retired from the Army the Darlington Recruiting Officer, Capt. J. A, Kinsley, paid the following tribute to him as a soldier: "He certainly has been one or the finest Army recruiters I have ever came across and his record of service will take a lot of beating."
During  his  retirement Mr. Spink has retained his interest in the Army, and the thousands of men he has recruited for the colours, through  his  work for the Legion. He is an expert on the pensions and benevolent aide of the Legion's work.
Mr. and Mrs. Spink were mied at York on July 30, 1907 when Mr. Spink held the rank of corporal, and his dally rate of pay was 11s 8d a week.
"There was no miage allowance in those days" he said, smiling, but money was worth more and we got along all right.
Work for Ex-Servicemen
Mr. Spink is a member of the Ministry of Labour disablement committee, Darlington District War Pensions committee and Darlington and was presented with a national certificate of appreciation. He is a life member of the British Legion.
During the last war, Mrs. Spink did canteen work with the W.V.S, buffet at Darlington Bank Top Station, the Darlington Y.M.C.A. For many years she has been a member of the committee of the women's section of the British Legion, and is still on that committee. She is a keen worker for the British Legion Club and for several years has been a Poppy Day worker.
 Mr. and Mrs. Spink have eight children—all mied—who were born while Mr. Spink was in the Army. There are five daughters and three sons, 20 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Two of the sons live in Rotherham, and the remainder of the family live in Darlington.
Next Tuesday there will be a gathering of the family at the British Legion Club For a supper.
At a presentation ceremony on Tuesday in the British Legion Headquarters. Mr. and Mrs. Spink received gifts in honour of their golden wedding.
Mr. H, Bainbridge, president of the club, and Mr. W, B. Botcherby, president of the local branch of the British Legion, presented them on behalf' of the club, with a cheque, a purse, and a bouquet.
The club sports section also gave a cup to be competed for annually by the bowls teams and It is to be known as the Spink Trophy.
Mr. and Mrs. Spink knew nothing about last night's events until they actually took ate. They were kept in suspense for two hours during which time entertainment was provided before the presentation was formally made.